1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to thermal efficient building materials, and particularly to a thermal barrier panel with selectable phase change materials.
2. Description of the Related Art
Relatively higher temperatures can often increase the use of cooling systems, such as air conditioning systems, to assist in maintaining thermal comfort for occupants in buildings. A rate of external heat penetrating into buildings, which is a component of thermal load and can cause the temperature within the building to rise, can depend on a number of factors, such as the thermal resistance of the building materials.
A current approach for increasing the thermal resistance of building materials to decrease the rate of external heat penetrating into a building can include placing phase change materials (PCMs) within the building material for incorporation of the PCMs within a building envelope or an area of a building or other structure, for example. Various known PCM materials can include, for example, ThermalCORE™ produced by National Gypsum, various thermal mass panels, such as produced by DuPont™, ThermaCool® produced by Datum Phase Change, Ltd., and micrometer-sized beads such as the Micronal® PCM produced by BASF.
PCMs can allow for the reduction of heat gain into the building and can also allow for the conservation of the cooling load by each PCM having a generally fixed melting temperature, as can also have a melting temperature range. PCMs can be organic or inorganic substances that can have a relatively lower melting temperature, such as paraffin and salt, for example. PCMs can allow for the reduction of heat gain into the building and can also allow for the conservation of the cooling load by each PCM having a generally fixed melting temperature, as can also have a melting temperature range. For example, when an outdoor temperature reaches a melting temperature or a melting point of the PCM, the PCM can melt and absorb the heat, and thus can prevent a portion of the external heat from penetrating into an interior space of the building or structure.
Further, building materials incorporating PCMs, such as PCM panels, can be typically placed at an outer surface of the building, such as a roof or a wall of the building, or can be incorporated into other portions of the building, such as in a window shutter, for example. A possible issue with current building materials having PCM as a heat absorption material is that the current heat absorption materials use only a single PCM, which can cause inefficiency in the heat absorption.
Therefore, it is desirable for a building material to contain multiple different PCMs to absorb external heat at various ambient temperatures to enhance the reduction of heat gain into an interior of a building or other structure.
Thus, a thermal barrier panel with selectable phase change materials addressing the aforementioned problems is desired.